Most of the time I play piano, but I also love to play the soprano recorder. I'm intrigued by the alternate trill fingerings and would love to discuss various options with anyone interested.

Are you referring to the Descant Recorder which is also known as Soprano, or do you mean the smaller Sopranino Recorder

I have played both and I love the sopranino. It's small enough to put into a pocket and take anywhere. If only there were more music for it!

I thought that the Descant Recorder was synonymous with the Soprano Recorder. I could be wrong. I don't play the Sopranino. You're right, not enough music for it, although the Telemann flute sonatas have a high enough range for it.

What kind of fingering does the Sopranino require. Is it the same as the descant?

I play the soprano recorder, very badly. One of my friends is a very good recorder player, and I try to play her recorder every so often. I can make really horrible noises come out of it, though I enjoy the experience.

I love playing the recorder. Currently I have a couple sopranos, a sopranino, and an alto recorder. I tried playing a tenor one once and I absolutely loved it! Hopefully I can buy one soon. But the soprano will probably always be my favourite.

With the tenor you can finally get some dynamics without your pitch swinging wildly about. Go for it.

Keystring, you're right about the tenor. Lately I have joined a recorder ensemble. I play tenor with them and I love the fact that I can use some nice vibrato. Sometimes my thumb gets tired so I'll switch to the soprano/descant.

I'm doing some research and looking for a good alto. Any advice about buying an alto would be appreciated.

I play all the recorders, except for the contrabass, which I haven't even seen one, sadly.

The soprano (descant) and tenor are in C.
The sopranino, alto and bass are in F.

However, written music is always written in C, and you need to accommodate your fingerings, unlike other instruments.

On the topic of trill fingerings, are you having any problems in particular?

Is anyone else interested in the altissimo on these things? I've been working on extending the recorder's registers. I can blow two octaves and one more tone - low C (everything covered) to D - although with some chromatic notes missing. I can do it in every recorder, although on the sopranino I've only practised alone, go figure.

Hi Canoxa,

I'm becoming quite good on Tenor as well as Descant. I've been studying trill fingering and trying to memorize them. I was curious as to what trill fingering is the hardest to execute.

I've read about getting certain high tones by putting the bell down on your thigh. That wouldn't work well for virtuoso passages, however. Why do you need so many high tones? Who writes so high for the instrument?

best wishes,
Valerie

I used to play the soprano recorder really well, did solos at church and the like. I dusted it recently and put it next to the piano to refreshen, but I admit, the piano got more attraction - or rather, I need more time!

Do you find good recorder solo literature? I've not found very much I admit.

Im a professional recorder teacher, so if there is anything you want to know you can message me if you want.

Yes! I was taught in grade 4 and haven't forgotten.

I am late to this thread but I do play soprano, alto and tenor recorders. I've been playing for about 5 years, the last three with a class/group called Recorder Players West here in Los Angeles.

Descant and soprano refer to the same recorder. Soprano refers to the range of the instrument while descant originally referred to a countermelody played an octave above the tenor part in medieval music. In early baroque music, the descant part was again a counter melody played higher than the soprano part either by another soprano or a sopranino. The latin was dyscantus which meant something like "not of the song" or not part of the melody.

Kurt